Page 7 of A Story of Mates and Temptation

“Why would you do that? You came for me,” I shout over the wind, my voice trembling. Daegan swears under his breath, ripping some of my skirts and taking my wrist into his hands.

“You’re bleeding all over me.” He begins to wrap my wrist tight, stopping the bleeding. “Now, are you hurt anywhere else? We can’t stop, but I will try my best to make sure you’re comfortable.”

“Didn’t know you cared enough about me to bother with my comfort or being a hero. Answer what I asked. How did you find me, and why?” I demand. The wind blows his white curls around on his head as he faces me.

“Our souls are bound together as entwined mates,” he explains, his grip tight on me. I’ve only ever ridden with Ziven, and it feels all kinds of wrong flying with Daegan. I’m surprised Odemis let me ride on her at all. “Of course I’d be able to find you. You may hate me forever, but not all of it was a lie for me. I do care. I just…I don’t love you, Story. I don’t have to love you to care about you because we are linked. We always will be. I couldn’t let him have you back, knowing that he’d hurt you. You came too far to be that broken again, and secretly, I hoped this might make you forgive me a little.”

“You tried to kill me!” I slam my hands against his chest.

“I was going mad because of the fucking book,” his voice breaks. “It was driving me insane—it felt like it was drilling into my soul.But when you were taken, the book knew. It knew their only chance of being freed from those pages was gone, too.” He has to shout for me to hear him over the howling wind, from how fast Odemis is flying. Daegan commanded him to go home, but where is home exactly? I don’t have any choice but to trust him at the moment.

“The book, the corruption of my soul, it snapped. It let me go. It just stopped speaking to me, and I presume it was because it didn’t want you dead. It knew that if you were, it might be another thousand years—or longer—before there was ever a chance it could be freed. Maybe it would never happen. It gave me my mind back, piece by piece, until I realised what I’d done—to my people, to you, to everyone.”

Guilt is written starkly across every inch of his face. “I couldn’t win against my mind, but maybe I was somehow. The first thing I did was get my people to safety. I’ve been preparing for months…but I don’t remember doing it.” He shakes his head. “I’m not sure how—it’s all a bit broken in my mind. But there’s a secret place, deep within the Moon Dynasty lands. It’s underground.”

“What are you talking about?” I grip his arm tighter when he dives and pain radiates up my stomach. I can taste my blood in my mouth, and I think when Emyr punched me, he hurt me badly. I need a healer, and there is zero chance of getting one anytime soon.

“Home. It’s connected to the dragons’ tunnels, but it’s much further north. I was taught about it from my father, like all princes of the sun are. The Sun and Moon kings, they knew the end of our kind was coming and we would face a great enemy, and they held a secret meeting to make a plan between them all.” He sadly smiles. “But that didn’t work. The Twilight andthe Dawn Dynasty didn’t agree to anything, didn’t want anything to do with a fail-safe plan of sorts. The Sun and Moon kings decided to do it without them then, and they formed an alliance, creating a secret place where their people could go when it all failed. They used their lives to cast powerful magic on the lands. It’s not a big place, but it is safe. It’s similar to what the princess did to make the mansion with the books, but it’s different and older. I believe it is where she got the idea from in the first place.”

I open and shut my mouth a few times. I don’t even know if I can believe a word that comes out of his mouth. He seduced me, only to try to kill me. “So you’re really not under the magic of the book anymore?”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be truly free, but yes in a way,” he says, skirting around a real answer. “One book is in the hideout. You had the other. Story, where is it?”

I’m still catching my breath, still processing that he got me out of there—away from Emyr—and there is a secret place where some of the fae are safe. “It’s with someone I trust. I know if anyone can get it to me, or to Avaluna, it will be her. I need both the books and Avaluna. I might be able to stop the vampyre king.” I don’t mention that I’m betting on the deities trapped in the books to have some mercy on us fae and help us stop the king if I free them like they want.

“We have a long flight ahead of us.” He looks away from me. “You can rest if you want.”

I can’t, not with how much pain I’m in. “Are these your old lands? The Sun Dynasty?”

He doesn’t look at me still, but he tenses. “Yes, though they’re barely recognizable now. They were once great, and now they are mostly buried in sand. Dead. I imagined seeing the world for so long, and it’s worse than any nightmare I had.”

“Ziven felt the same.” I gulp. “Where is he?”

“I’m not sure,” Daegan admits, his voice soft. “I’m sorry, but there were reports his dragon was gravely injured, and they both fell from the skies?—”

“But he’s alive.”

He looks right at me.

“The same way you knew I was alive is the same way I know he is. But stronger. He is out there.”

“That’s good. Most of his people are in the hideout,” he adds. “We got as many as we could to the city, including the refugees.”

I look at him, a mix of anger and confusion still swirling in my chest. “You tried to kill me before, but you saved me now. You got them to safety, and I don’t know how to feel about that.”

“I destroyed a significant part of my castle for you.” He grins, almost teasing. Then his tone turns sincere. “I want to be your friend, Story. I want us to start over. It’s important that any world we fight for from here is one we can live in without the past clouding us. I want a fresh start with my people. That’s it.”

“I am grateful that you saved me from Emyr, so I will think about it,” I offer, because it is all I have right now. I’m too worried about Ziven and Hettie. About Catherine and Avaluna and Calix. These people have become my family.

“You’re the love of his life.” Daegan’s voice is filled with conviction, and it is almost like he can read my thoughts. “And I was once his best friend. We fucked up everything between each other time after time, but I never saw him love anyone before. Not like you. You are his sole reason for existing, and he is so fucking stubborn…there isn’t a chance he isn’t fighting to get to you now. With or without a dragon.” I hope he is right, but it feels wrong to talk to Daegan about Ziven, so I don’t reply. “I found Hettie with a fae couple who found her alone in the forest. She was smart enough to call herself the sun princess heir, and they brought her to Etena. I have kept her safe and have every intention of continuing to do so. She’s my heir, after all—my niece.”

“I think if you don’t want Ziven or me to kill you, then you should keep away from her. She isn’t your anything, Daegan,” I snap. “You hurt her to use her as a distraction to kill me.”

He tightens his grip on me, and when he meets my eyes, his are full of unshed tears. His expression breaks something inside me. “I don’t remember doing any of it. It was the book, the magic pushing me and shadowing everything. It made it feel like all I needed was to kill you and escape the castle, but I know it was aware of what would happen. That you’d unlock the mansion and give the book a chance to find the other. I’m sorry and I will be forever.” I want to believe him, but I need to see proof of this hideout, see Hettie, and make sure she is okay. I begin shivering after half an hour of the flight, so bad that he pulls his yellow cloak, covered in sun symbols, and wraps it around me.

“We make a better future.” His voice is nothing but a soft prayer to the world. “That’s how we make amends for the past. What else can we do to move forward? Maybe it doesn’t matter because I can’t win this war, Story. Even our dragons areoutnumbered. Between them and the vampyres…we’ve lost so much. Too much.” I don’t know how to respond. The wind whips around us as we soar through the sky. I close my eyes just as I feel it.

I feel the part of me that is missing, the part of me that I search for every time I close my eyes. My connection to Ziven…it’s just gone.

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